We had planned a family fishing trip to Valparai with families and friends last week.It was our intention to check our luck and catch few mahseer.

Friday morning we had started from Coimbatore and in between our friends and families joined together.

The place is called Manampalli and half an hour drive from Valparai.There is a forest guest house which has no power, but all other facilities are okay.

We had reached there by 1.00 pm and finished our lunch. By 2.00 pm we started casting in the fast running water ( which was a from the power house close by) and after couple of casts I had a strike and landed a mahseer around 500 grams.Its been released with the hope of getting a bigger one.

Actually this river surrounds the guest house like a U and we had tried all the place. Till evening not even a single strike, but 4 of the J13 rapala plugs and 1 spinner was struck with the woods inside the river .It was getting darker also.

We cut the lines and tied it near by wood or plants and hoping of retrieving it back the next day.

The next day early morning again we started and Murali's 1 st cast itself he got the strike and landed a decent size around 2.000 kgs.Kept for the pot.

Again there a a plug and spinner struck at the woods . As advised by the locals, its very risky to swim into the river and retrieve the lures as there was a crocodile which had bitten couple of locals.

One of the local came to support me and we cut a thin lengthy bamboo pole and went to 3 metres inside from the shore.Retrieved 2 of the plug and 1 spinner . After that I had swim 2 more metres deep and retrived 1 more spinner and plug.We had lost 2 of the J13 fire tigers.

My friends watched from the shore that if there was any crocodiles close by or moving as the water was clear , but later I felt it was risky.

Hope to make the successful trip next time.

Bye

murali and my son with the fish

fast running water

fast running water

friend is trying his luck

Author:

jeen [ Thu Oct 15, 2009 5:09 pm ]

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Hi Sarvan,

Familiar waters . I always wanted to try this spot. Please can you tell me how to get there and do we need a permission to stay in the guest house|? and if so where do we take the permission from?
Nice photograps and good fish.

Regards,

Jeen

Author:

Sudhir [ Thu Oct 15, 2009 5:10 pm ]

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Nice fish

Hey nice fish - great spot...Congratulations...next time do consider putting the fish back.

Sudhir

Author:

Mahaseerken [ Thu Oct 15, 2009 5:20 pm ]

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Fantastic river! Looks like it was a great trip.

keep taking the little one out with you. He'll be a great angler someday.

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angler_ali [ Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:23 am ]

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Good Show mate, keep it up..

Regards,

Ali.

Author:

apoo [ Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:42 am ]

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Very nice location.

We lose a lot of spinners and plugs too.

Cheers,
Apoo

Author:

Bobby [ Fri Oct 16, 2009 5:16 pm ]

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At the risk of sounding repetitive that is an awesome location, something that I would expect Jeen to post or Apoo.

Author:

Ali [ Fri Oct 16, 2009 7:45 pm ]

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Good show!
Did the mahseers you landed take the plug or spinner?

Author:

apoo [ Sat Oct 17, 2009 9:42 am ]

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Hi Saravanan,

There are similar rivers in the NE part of India. The place looks very promising. Instead of J13 use the J11. Colours like perch, firetiger, silver or gold would be productive. We use mepps/firefox size 4/5 spinners as well. We would spend hours casting the lures/spinners at the same spot. Really a awesome spot. A small raft would have been helpful to retrieve the lost spinners and plugs. Observe the beat very thoroughly and then try night fishing or early in the morning.

Cheers,
Apoo

Author:

rangersaravanan [ Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:45 am ]

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Hi Jeen,

This place Manampalli is around 3 hour drive from Pollachi/Coimbatore district.( Hope you know Coimbatore).

It’s a forest Guest house deep inside the evergreen forest.The main office is in Pollachi where you will get permission to stay.

You have to do the booking a week before your stay. There is a cook available , but you have to take all the provisions yourself .

Both the Mahseers caught by plug J13 Fire tiger and J 13 Yellow perch. We had no luck with Mepps or Blue Fox spinners in silver or bleeding red or rainbow trout. Like suggested by Apoo, I will get some J11’s and try next time.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Author:

ironsimon [ Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:41 pm ]

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Menparai!!!

Great show Saravanan...Ive been there a lot of times but never managed anything great except for a few small ones...Actually I heard there are better spots down the river and that is where the muggers were introduced long back...And some locals who accompanied us earlier claimed to have caught fish in the 20kg range....This place and down stream looks much beautiful then it looks in the pics

Regards............Simon

Author:

Steve Lockett [ Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:17 pm ]

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If it's close to Valparai, that must mean it is one of the West flowing rivers. Possibly a tributary of the Chalakudy? I was assuming it would be a tributary of the Amaravathi.